A diachronic study on three Chinese translations’ styles of <i>The Wealth of Nations</i> : a corpus-based multidimensional analysis

Multidimensional analysis allows for the comparison of registered features of multiple translations from the same source text through the identification of potential latent factors from the convergence of observed factors. Based on the self-built Chinese translation corpus of the English book The Wealth of Nations, this paper adopts a multidimensional analysis to investigate the register features of three Chinese translations. Principal component analysis reveals that the three Chinese translations are found to be different in five dimensions. Among these, Personal Narration and Personal Stance are the most salient dimensions, highlighting a diachronic increase in translators’ authorial presence and evaluative involvement. Generally, it can be concluded from the shifts of translation styles as “specificity-authority-involvement.” Variations of dimensions can be interpreted with reference to Bourdieu’s framework, showing how translators’ positioning is influenced by concepts of field, capital, and habitus. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis could advance the understanding of linguistic variations in the translation styles and potential mechanisms lying behind.